This is a really nice article about Brian Dozier learning Spanish in order to communicate better with his teammates.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/03/05/brian-dozier-spanish-baseball/

 

A couple of select quotes:

• “I think we, as Americans, need to take it upon ourselves to say, ‘Hey, these guys are going to be playing for a championship just like us, and you need real camaraderie to make that happen, and in order to have that, we need to take it upon ourselves to learn Spanish,’ ” Dozier said.
• During one of his offseasons in the minors, he played winter ball in Venezuela. Around that same time, he met Eduardo Escobar, who was new to the Twins organization. They didn’t know they’d play seven years together. Still, they made a decision: make each other better. “I taught him English,” Dozier said. “He taught me a lot of Spanish, just how to communicate day-in and day-out and stuff like that. I took it upon myself to start reading books on planes and bus rides just to kind of teach myself more. And then obviously the best way to learn it is being around it every day and actually using it.”

One of those things many of us never knew about how players interact off the field and how they influence each other. I wish there were more articles like this one!

Dope. Love reading stories about this. One of the reasons I find modern baseball so interesting. 

I remember reading stories about his learning Spanish, didn’t know it also involved a pact with Esco to make each other better.

This makes me even more of a Brian Dozier fan, and I'm already a big one.   Nothing but class from #2.

I would really like to see Dozier return to the Twins in some kind of on-field coaching/managing role.

 

I would really like to see Dozier return to the Twins in some kind of on-field coaching/managing role.

Maybe he can organize a language instruction class to teach English-only speakers how to speak Spanish

Should his next stop be coaching, being able to speak Spanish will be a big plus.

 

Maybe he can organize a language instruction class to teach English-only speakers how to speak Spanish

And he could start with Dan Gladden.

If I were running a major league franchise I would make Spanish language classes a mandatory part of the job, with pay, for all employees who are not able to communicate in Spanish. The goal would be to have almost every employee able to communicate in Spanish, but at the very least there should be someone in every department who is fluent. This applies not just to baseball operations. It would benefit the organization to have fluent Spanish users in the legal department, in the sales and marketing department, in the public relations department, and so on.

 

If I were running a major league franchise I would make Spanish language classes a mandatory part of the job, with pay, for all employees who are not able to communicate in Spanish. The goal would be to have almost every employee able to communicate in Spanish, but at the very least there should be someone in every department who is fluent. This applies not just to baseball operations. It would benefit the organization to have fluent Spanish users in the legal department, in the sales and marketing department, in the public relations department, and so on.

 

So much this.

 

 

 

If I were running a major league franchise I would make Spanish language classes a mandatory part of the job, with pay, for all employees who are not able to communicate in Spanish. The goal would be to have almost every employee able to communicate in Spanish, but at the very least there should be someone in every department who is fluent. This applies not just to baseball operations. It would benefit the organization to have fluent Spanish users in the legal department, in the sales and marketing department, in the public relations department, and so on.

Both English and Spanish lessons for those who need each. More communication is better all around for everyone.

 

Both English and Spanish lessons for those who need each. More communication is better all around for everyone.

Thanks for pointing out the oversight in my post. Yes, I agree that it's to everyone's benefit to have as many bilingual employees as possible.

Doesn’t Andrelton Simmons speak four or five???